KNOWING GOD MAKES A DIFFERENCE!
Psalm 118:14-16
The LORD is my strength and my song;
he has become my salvation.
Glad songs of salvation
are in the tents of the righteous:
“The right hand of the LORD does valiantly,
the right hand of the LORD exalts,
the right hand of the LORD does valiantly!”
What a privilege it is, to be able to say that the LORD is
my strength and my song and has become my salvation! There is no doubt that if
He is not my salvation, He will never be my strength and therefore never be my
song.
The fact that the writer says that the LORD has become his
salvation implies that there was a time He wasn’t, and had to become His
salvation.
God is not the Savior of all men. Man must come to a place
in his life where he recognizes his total inability to do anything that pleases
God.
Isaiah 64:6
We have all become
like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous
deeds are like a polluted garment.
We all fade like a
leaf,
and our iniquities,
like the wind, take us away.
Man tries to produce what he thinks are good works, but even
they are unclean. Man lives, sins, and finds himself condemned by the holiness
of God.
Romans 3:23
for all have sinned
and fall short of the glory of God,
The holy God of the Bible could only do one righteous thing.
Romans 6:23
For the wages of sin
is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
God had to condemn us and offer the only solution possible:
the death of His perfect and holy son Jesus Christ in our place. A death that
becomes efficacious for man only when man recognizes himself as spiritually
bankrupt, incapable of saving himself, and trusts only in the finished work of
Christ on the cross.
John 1:12
But to all who did
receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of
God,
When the psalmist says that the LORD has become our
salvation, these thoughts should flood our minds. Our hearts should be
inundated with awe and gratefulness, and our lives should be different. Our
reactions should be in tune with these amazing truths.
Are these truths present in our lives? Have we become too
familiar with them? Have they stopped causing us to be swept away with
amazement?
God is at work in our lives; the same love that drove Him to
provide a Savior is the same love that produces every action of God in our
lives.
Psalm 118:17-18
I shall not die, but I shall live,
and recount the deeds of the LORD.
The LORD has disciplined me severely,
but he has not given me over to death.
I am not under the curse of death, but I am under God’s
loving care and discipline.
Hebrews 12:5-6
And have you forgotten
the exhortation that addresses you as sons?
“My son, do not regard
lightly the discipline of the Lord,
nor be weary when
reproved by him.
For the Lord
disciplines the one he loves,
and chastises every
son whom he receives.”
The writer knew that LORD needed to discipline him. We
should be pleased with God’s loving disciplinary work in our lives that
produces righteousness and dependence. Gratitude should be our only response.
Psalm 118:19-22
Open to me the gates of righteousness,
that I may enter through them
and give thanks to the LORD.
This is the gate of the LORD;
the righteous shall enter through it.
I thank you that you have answered me
and have become my salvation.
The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone.
The Apostle Peter will tell us that the stone that was
rejected is Christ.
1 Peter 2:7-8
So the honor is for
you who believe, but for those who do not believe,
“The stone that the
builders rejected
has become the
cornerstone,”
and “A stone of stumbling,
and a rock of
offense.”
They stumble because they disobey the word, as
they were destined to do.
Christ is salvation for those who believe, but He is also a
stumbling rock for those who reject Him. The world is divided in two groups:
the ones who have come to Christ and those who reject the simple message of the
Gospel; there is no middle ground.
Again, these truths should produce celebration and gratitude
in the lives of those who know God; those who have become children of God.
Psalm 118:26-27
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD!
We bless you from the house of the LORD.
The LORD is God,
and he has made his light to shine upon us.
Bind the festal sacrifice with cords,
up to the horns of the altar!
The children of Israel were called to recognize the
work of the LORD and to submit to Him. Today we don’t go to God with sacrifices,
because Christ’s sacrifice was done once for all - a sacrifice sufficient to
save, that never needs to be repeated.
Hebrews 10:10
And by that will we
have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for
all.
If rehearsing these truths is not producing gratitude, if
our problems are not paling in light of eternity, if remembering the work of
Christ is not reassuring us of His loving care in the details of our lives, we
must ask ourselves if we have really understood salvation by grace.
The writer concludes with an exclamation!
Psalm 118:28-29
You are my God, and I will give thanks to you;
you are my God; I will extol you.
Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;
for his steadfast love endures forever!
May this be our song, our life, the driving force of our
every action and reaction. May our lives invite others to know the God of our
salvation!
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